The Colombian benchmark IGBC stock index ended higher Tuesday, following strong gains on the New York Stock Exchange.
The IGBC stock index gained 1.2% to 11,376.05 points, the highest level since Oct. 6. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 130 points Tuesday afternoon.
“The market here followed New York,” Camilo Forero, a market analyst with the local brokerage Profesionales de Bolsa, said.
Stock prices are up in New York as concerns about the Dubai World debt crisis eased, renewing investors’ risk appetite and pushing the major indexes back near their highest levels of 2009.
Forero said the Colombian index may rise above 11,400 points in the coming days, likely breaking its all-time record of 11,438.88 points hit in November 2007.
Shares of state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETROL.BO) rose 1.6% to 2,545 Colombian pesos ($1.28), while preferred shares of Bancolombia SA (CIB) rose 2.1% to COP21,960.
The Colombian peso strengthened to COP1,989.7 to the dollar on Tuesday from COP2,003.8 on Monday.
On the debt market, the yield on the benchmark government peso-denominated bond maturing in 2020 fell to 7.86% from 7.968% on Monday.